Category: Healthy Tips

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disturbance in which the patient suffers from a respiratory obstruction when he is asleep or has a shallow breathing. These breaks can occur more than 30 times per hour, because of the airways narrow or become blocked during sleep.

A new study by a team of scientists at New York University’s Langone Medical Center suggests that loud snoring and sleep apnea can affect the brain, causing memory and thinking impairment at an early age.

Throughout the study, the medical records of 2,470 adults between the ages of 55 and 90 were analyzed, classifying them into three groups: with Alzheimer’s, in the early stages of cognitive impairment or without memory problems. Examining also those untreated or undiagnosed with sleep-disordered breathing, they found that people with sleep-disordered breathing were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (CDI) almost ten years earlier than those who did not have breathing problems at the time of sleep. sleep.

Thus, cognitive impairment was shown at age 77 years in those who did have sleep breathing problems and at 90 years in those who did not. Regarding Alzheimer, the difference was in five years.

“Abnormal breathing patterns during sleep, such as loud snoring and sleep apnea are common in older people, affecting about 52% of men and 26% of women.”

The positive side is that another of the study’s findings revealed that treating breathing machine disorders may delay memory decline: “The age of onset of LBW for people where respiratory problems were attained was equal to that of people who did not have any breathing problems. Since many older adults have sleep breathing problems, these results are exciting. We need to examine whether the use of CPAP could help prevent or delay problems with memory and thinking.”

Some good sleeping tips

Exercise: Keeping yourself physically active every day with activities at your fingertips like walking, running, or swimming brings us three key benefits for a good night’s sleep.

Schedules and Routine: To get a good night’s sleep, we need to organize our dream and do it responsibly. You should go to bed at the same time each day and wake up at the same time in the morning as much as possible.

Goodbye to Smoking: Smoking is a great enemy of rest apart from our overall health. Nicotine causes an effect in our body that makes it difficult for us to fall asleep quickly.

Sleeping pills are also not real allies: Try to avoid sleeping pills and consult a specialist the most efficient way to take them for as short a time as possible.

Drink less alcohol: Alcohol depresses the nervous system, which helps you fall asleep. However, this effect disappears in a few hours, which causes us to wake up several times throughout the night, preventing a good sleep.

If you can not sleep, get up: Staying in bed after 20 minutes of going to sleep is an indicator that we are not relaxed and therefore, it will cost us to fall asleep.